The present invention relates to portable radio communication devices, and more particularly to mounting arrangements for ringer buzzers for such devices.
Ringer buzzers, sometimes simply called buzzers, are the audio transducers in a mobile communication device such as a portable radiotelephone which ring on activation to alert the user of an incoming call or other event. Typically, in the mobile phone a buzzer is mounted directly onto one of the printed circuit boards (PCB""s) and once the PCB is assembled in relation to the phone housing the buzzer is located next to an orifice in the housing through which the ringer sound is emitted when the buzzer is activated. The PCB""s are mounted in the phone by fixing them into the rear cover member of the housing, for example by screwing them down in the vertical direction. The body or orifice support for the buzzer is provided in the rear face of the cover member and therefore sealing the buzzer against the rear cover in the vertical direction is straight forward because it is brought into alignment with the seal and the orifice in the vertical direction. This is because the sound outlet is at the rear of the phone.
The drawback of such an arrangement between the buzzer and cover member is that because the sound outlet is on the back face of the phone, if the phone is placed on a table or pushed against the users body, for example in a pocket, then the sound outlet port becomes blocked (either by the surface of the table or the body) and this can seriously effect the buzzer audio output from the phone. This obviously in turn makes it harder for the user to hear the buzzer when it is ringing, which could lead to missed calls.
One solution that has been used to overcome this problem is to provide the buzzer orifice at the side of the phone. In this way, when a phone is laid flat on a table surface, the buzzer is directed sideways from the phone and is therefore not obstructed. This type of buzzer again is initially mounted on a PCB and the PCB is assembled by lowering it in a vertical direction into the cover member of the phone, with the buzzer being received in a sealing boot of the phone. This arrangement is shown in FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings. As is apparent, the buzzer needs to be sealed in a horizontal direction against the side of the phone, while only compressing the parts concerned in a vertical direction. The result is either poor sealing or a clash of the parts as they are slid past one another making assembly difficult.
Against this background, the present invention seeks to overcome the difficulties with the prior art buzzers outlined above. Accordingly, the present invention provides a portable radio communication device comprising a housing and a buzzer that rings on activation to alert a user of an event, the buzzer being disposed adjacent the inner surface of the housing and next to an audio outlet orifice for the buzzer provided in the body cover member, wherein the housing has a channelled recess provided in its outer surface in the area of the audio outlet orifice.
By means of the invention, even if the communication apparatus is laid flat on for example a table their will be a duct for allowing the sound produced by the buzzer to be outletted to the surrounding environment. In effect, the duct is defined by the channel recess and the surface of the table. As a result, such communication apparatus would benefit in that the sound of the buzzer would not be obstructed or muffled in such circumstances.
Furthermore, because the audio outlet orifice is provided in the rear surface of the cover member, sealing of the buzzer can be effected in a vertical direction, i.e. in a plane parallel to PCB mounting.